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- "There is no word for "thank you" in Dothraki."
- ―Jorah Mormont
Dothraki is the language spoken by the Dothraki people.
The Dothraki do not have their own writing system, nor much use for the writing systems of neighboring peoples, so they are an illiterate society.[1]
Important Terminology
- Dosh khaleen - Widows of deceased khals, who preside over the Dothraki city of Vaes Dothrak. Wise-women who essentially the leaders of the Dothraki religion.
- dothrakaan - a single Dothraki rider
- Dothraki - lit. "men who ride", "riders"; the Dothraki people.
- Khal - Dothraki warlord.
- Khaleesi - The wife of the khal.
- Khalasar - Dothraki clan or tribe, led by a khal.
- Ko - Kos are lieutenants of a khal, commanding subdivisions of a khalasar. On the death of a khal, a ko may try to become the new khal, or split off his own riders to form a new, smaller khalasar.
- Me nem nesa - "it is known"[2]
- Qoy Qoyi - (literally, "blood of my blood") "Bloodrider", a Dothraki warrior that has pledged his life to the service of a khal.
- Vaes Dothrak - the only Dothraki city, located deep within the Dothraki Sea.
- zhey - the Vocative particle in the Dothraki language, used when directly addressing the object of a sentence; thus it is very frequently heard in Dothraki dialogue. While the Vocative case was present in the Proto-Indo-European language, it fell out of use in modern Romance languages, as well as Germanic languages such as English and German (but is still present in Celtic and Slavic languages). Thus there is no direct English equivalent for zhey, though it basically means "you", or more loosely, "hey", and often isn't directly translated as its own word in a sentence. For example, Rakharo says to Irri, "Hash yer ray tih loy alegra, zhey vikeesi?" (Have you seen any ducks, woman?). However, Daenerys says "Zhey qoy qoyi!" (Blood of my blood!) when addressing her bloodriders, or simply "zhey Rakharo" (literally just "Rakharo"), when trying to get Rakharo's attention. However, the Vocative particle may also be used reflexively when the subject is referring to himself: Khal Drogo swears "Anha, zhey Drogo, atak jin" (I, Drogo, will do this).[3]
Season 1
Season 2
Season 3
According to an interview with David J. Peterson on Forbes.com in November 2012, there is actually only one line in the Dothraki language in Season 3 of the TV series.[4]
Behind the scenes
The Dothraki language was created by David J. Peterson of the Language Creation Society, and as of May 2011 has a vocabulary of over 2,500 words. He has also worked on other languages for the show, such as Skroth and Asshai'i.
- ↑ David J. Peterson's blog, Dothraki.com, July 19, 2012.
- ↑ David J. Peterson's blog, Dothraki.com, June 4, 2012
- ↑ Dothraki.org
- ↑ David J. Peterson interview with Forbes.com


text: The Pirri Hair Group introduces its Lava Glaze Smooth & Relaxing Serum from its Elements & Elemental Tools line of haircare products. Lava Glaze relaxes the hair for a straight style or reduces frizz for a natural, air-dried look. It's formulated with aloe vera to help eliminate dead ends and protect the hair from the damaging effects of blow drying and UV rays.

subset: commoncrawl


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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- MoveOn.org is moving into the TV fight over curbing gun violence.
The progressive group will announce Friday that it's going up with a television commercial that goes after members of Congress who accept donations from the National Rifle Association.
The MoveOn spot, which the group says it will spend six figures to run for a week on national cable television, is part of their campaign titled, "The NRA doesn't speak for me."
In the ad, a man named Jerry Thompson, who describes himself as a gun owner and proud defender of the Second Amendment, says, "For years I've watched Congress take money from the NRA and then oppose any kind of reform that helps keep us safe."
Thompson goes on to say that he was disgusted by the NRA's response to the December massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary school in Newtown, Conn., where a well-armed gunman killed 20 young students and six adults.
The commercial ends with Thompson saying "I've had enough. So here's my message to Congress. You take money from the NRA and then continue to do their bidding, we're going to remember that come election time. The NRA doesn't speak for me, and they don't speak for the vast majority of Americans so stop taking their money."
MoveOn's announcement of their new ad comes one day after NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre charged that President Barack Obama's gun control proposals in the State of the Union address were "not about keeping kids safe at school" but rather part of a broad campaign to "dismantle the Second Amendment."
"When nothing else matters to every parent in America, President Obama had nothing to say about school security and nothing he proposed has anything to do with protecting one child in any school in this country," LaPierre said in remarks billed as a response to Tuesday's speech.
Near the end of the State of the Union address the president made an emotional plea for Congress to hold votes on controversial proposals for tougher gun laws. Listing gun violence victims, some of whom were in the audience at the U.S. Capitol, Obama said "they deserve a vote" as many in the audience cheered loudly.
Thursday's NRA speech came one day after LaPierre issued a rally-cry for gun owners, writing in an op-ed that "good Americans are prudently getting ready to protect themselves" against what he described as an onslaught of doom.
"Hurricanes. Tornadoes. Riots. Terrorists. Gangs. Lone criminals. These are perils we are sure to face-not just maybe. It's not paranoia to buy a gun. It's survival," the NRA's executive vice president wrote in the op-ed published Wednesday by the conservative news website, The Daily Caller.
The NRA also went up at the beginning of the week with a web video that asserted that the president's attempts to enact new gun control laws would result in the "confiscation" of people's firearms.
MoveOn says that besides the TV ad, they'll greet members of Congress as they head home for recess with organized rallies and congressional office drop-bys. The group also says it will distribute "The NRA Doesn't Speak for Me" bumper stickers.
CNN's Ashley Killough contributed to this report.
™ & © 2013 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved.


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Difference between revisions of "Channel icons"
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for all the users that can run MythTV as well.
for all the users that can run MythTV as well.
=Channel Icon Sources=
=Channel Icon Sources=
Revision as of 17:13, 13 March 2013
Channel Icon Download System
As of 0.21, MythTV includes a channel icon download system in mythtv-setup which will attempt to automatically download icons for channels in your database from services.mythtv.org. If it cannot find an icon it will present you with a list of options, an the ability to define your own search parameters.
To configure icon downloading in mythtv-setup:
- run "mythtv-setup"
- select "Channel Editor"
- click on "Icon Download"
- select either "Download all icons.." or "Rescan for missing icons.."
Universal Location
By default the icon will be downloaded to the '/home/<user>/.mythtv/channels' directory. This is not very friendly when you have multiple frontends and wish them all to share the icons. One method to get around this is to use a symlink for this directory that directs to a network located directory that all your frontends have access to, say '/var/mythtv/channels' for example.
Before downloading the icons, do the following, or similar as per your distribution:
rm ~/.mythtv/channels -rf
sudo mkdir /var/mythtv/channels
sudo chown <user>:<group> /var/mythtv/channels
ln -s /var/mythtv/channels ~/.mythtv/channels
You will want to run
rm ~/.mythtv/channels -rf
ln -s /var/mythtv/channels ~/.mythtv/channels
for all the users that can run MythTV as well.
Storage Group Location
As of 0.25, there is support for using Storage Groups for access to the icons.
Channel Icon Sources
One of the best sources of channel icons is http://www.lyngsat-logo.com/ . There, you can browse the available icons and choose those appropriate for your system. However, doing so can be a lot of work (requiring many page hits and a lot of time). Once downloaded you should put the resulting JPEG files into .mythtv/channels/ for the user running the front-end. To add them to a channel you will need to run mythtv-setup and go to the channel editor and specify the icon file name for each channel.
Another source of channel icons is http://www.iconharmony.com/ which is targeted for icons for the harmony remote. Some of the available icons are more stylized than the official icon (the person running the site is a graphic artist). As with the previous source, finding an appropriate icon can be a lot of work.


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PEPFAR's recent release of its "Technical Guidance on Combination HIV Prevention" (.pdf) for men who have sex with men (MSM) "could force countries like Kenya who are strongly opposed to men having sex with men to backtrack," Nairobi Star/allAfrica.com reports. Because homosexual acts are illegal in some countries, including Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Zimbabwe, "there are no policies or services targeting HIV interventions towards them," according to the publication.
The guidance "highlights the importance of addressing key barriers like stigma, discrimination, human rights abuses and criminalization of same-sex activity, but it offers no specific recommendations on how to do so," the newspaper notes. George Ayala, executive officer of the Global Forum on MSM & HIV (MSMGF), said, "If PEPFAR is serious about addressing barriers like stigma and criminalization, a clear set of steps must be offered for Country Missions to tackle these difficult challenges," the publication reports (Neondo, 5/25).
In a seminar in Nairobi on Tuesday, Hanna Dagnachew, a PEPFAR senior program adviser, reiterated that young women were at a higher risk of HIV infection than men, Nairobi Star/allAfrica.com reports. The workshop also called for increasing youth's knowledge base of HIV/AIDS, giving youth economic opportunities, and encouraging safe sex behavior to help fight the disease among this age group (Rajab, 5/25).
This information was reprinted from kff.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Global Health Policy Report, search the archives, and sign up for email delivery. © Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.


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Blog Archives
Todd Helton Should Be Retiring After This Year – But With His Head Held High!
Like us on Facebook hereFollow @mlbreports
Wednesday February.27, 2013
By Jon Schifferle ( Rockies Correspondent – visit his own personal website here . Follow him on twitter here Follow @jonschifferle
Todd Helton, the Rockies first round draft choice in 1995, has been a staple in the Rockies lineup ever since his first full season in 1998. A batting champion, 5 time All-Star, 3 time Gold Glove winner, and the holder of many Rockies team records, plus he should be the first player to ever have his number retired by the Rockies after he retires. The question is, when should he retire?
Helton is clearly ending his career in the near future. His 2012 numbers were definitely not where they need to be, especially considering the boost that he gets from playing in Coors Field for half of his games (he hit a dismal .208 on the road last season). You could blame his struggles last season on his injuries, but even then you have to ask yourself if he will be able to recover, and if the injuries permanently damage his ability to play the game.
Todd Helton 2011 Highlight Mix –


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Fastcase Partners with Justia to Provide Opinion Summaries For Free
Case Summaries Now Available for State and Federal Court Opinions
Washington, DC (December 20, 2011) – Legal publisher Fastcase has partnered with Justia to provide free access to summaries of state and federal court opinions to all users of the Fastcase online library database. Justia, a legal media and technology company based in Mountain View, Ca., has been drafting concise summaries of breaking court opinions written by licensed attorneys since March 2011.
The summaries are added daily to all opinions from state supreme courts, the U.S. Supreme Court, and federal circuit courts of appeal, and made available for no additional charge to all Fastcase users.
"Case summaries used to be offered only in the most expensive traditional legal research services," said Ed Walters, CEO of Fastcase. "That ends today. Together with Justia, we're offering very helpful editorial summaries of new cases – and at no additional cost."
Justia has offered a number of services surrounding its case summaries, such as a daily feed of summaries by jurisdiction and practice area. Today, they are integrating the summaries in Fastcase's legal research service as well.
Justia is a leader in democratizing the law and making more of the world's law available in the public domain. "This is a powerful tool for attorneys, journalists, and others looking to keep up with latest developments in the law," said Stanley, CEO of Justia CEO. "Our Daily Summaries support our commitment to make online legal information freely available and easy to access."
In recent months, Fastcase has debuted a suite of Fastcase Cloud Printing applications and has been named to the prestigious EContent 100 list of leading digital publishing and media companies alongside Google, Amazon, Apple, and Facebook. Fastcase was recently ranked #1 on Law Technology News's first Customer Satisfaction Survey, and won the 2010 American Association of Law Libraries New Product of the Year Award. It was also recognized as the leader in mobile apps by the 2011 ABA Legal Technology Survey.
About Justia
Justia (http://www.Justia.com) is a legal media and technology company focused on making legal information, resources and services easy to find on the Internet. Justia provides Internet users with free case law, codes, regulations, legal articles and legal blog databases, as well as community resources. The company also provides legal blog and Web development services for law firms, educational, public interest and other socially-focused organizations.
About Fastcase
As the smarter alternative for legal research, Fastcase democratizes the law, making it more accessible to more people. Using patented software that combines the best of legal research with the best of Web search, Fastcase helps busy users sift through the clutter, ranking the best cases first and enabling the re-sorting of results to find answers fast. Founded in 1999, Fastcase has more than 500,000 subscribers from around the world. Fastcase is an American company based in Washington, D.C. For more information, follow Fastcase on Twitter at @Fastcase, or visit http://www.fastcase.com.


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3 of the 4 categories center on 4 individuals: Michael Flynn, James Comey, and Jeff Sessions. The 4th category is "Campaign Coordination With Russia."
ADDED: I cannot imagine trying to answer questions about what was going on in my mind at all these precise points in the past. Do you have access to the contents of your mind like that? Even when an interaction is happening, I don't have a clear, precise view of my own motivations and intentions. Thinking about it immediately afterwords, I might puzzle about it, even when I'm under no pressure and it's only one incident. But I would never be able — even if I believed I deserved no criminal punishment — to sit down to a high-stakes questioning about many interactions that occurred over the course of many months and purport to tell the truth about what I was thinking on all those occasions. There would be no way not to lie. Continually.
So disgraceful that the questions concerning the Russian Witch Hunt were "leaked" to the media. No questions on Collusion. Oh, I see...you have a made up, phony crime, Collusion, that never existed, and an investigation begun with illegally leaked classified information. Nice!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 1, 2018


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For the first time in five weeks since the season began, judges were unanimously satisfied with each "Voice" competitor who performed in Monday night's semi-final round.
Tony Lucca, clawing his way back after ex-Mickey Mouse Club-pal Christina Aguilera shrugged him off as "one-dimensional," kicked and twisted around the stage, singing — perhaps to Aguilera — "How You Like Me Now?" by the Heavy.
Though the undertones of dissatisfaction were apparent in Aguilera's restrained critique ("It was definitely more slickly done. I thought it was fun. Did Adam teach you those dance moves?") the absence of blatant criticism from his harshest judge was remarkable and set the tone for the rest of the competition.
U.S. & World
Katrina Parker, whose voice has teetered between near-perfection and rough-around-the-edges, leaned toward perfection Monday with her performance of "Killing me Softly."
Team Blake's Erin Willit put her powerful pipes on "Without You," sometimes straying off key—but not enough to prompt any of the judges to address it.
Aguilera, the most frank of the four judges skirted around the issues of tone and technique and praised her for being "so emotionally involved" in her song. (Willet ended her song with some tears.)
Jermaine Paul, who somehow, someway was stuck in backup-singing obscurity for his entire career, sang "Open Arms" so perfectly it could easily have been mistaken for a recorded and expertly produced track.
The same went for Cee Lo's Jamar Rogers who sang a chill-inducing "If You Don't Know Me by Now."
Team Christina's Chriss Mann went back to his roots and sang "Ave Maria," unapolegetically, to rave reviews, while the whispery Lindsey Pavao held the mic closer to her lips and impressed everyone with her voice, which had previously been so hard to hear.
Rocker Juliet Simms, who closed the show, had the judges completely dumbfounded following her Janis Joplin-esque "It's a Man's Man's World." They stuttered and praised her, and said things like, "wow," as if she were the super star and they were her fans—which, for the moment, seemed to be the case.
Eliminations resume on Tuesday, 9 p.m. ET on NBC.


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Because the news should be objective, clear, and data-driven.
03/11/2010, Scot Ringa: February, 2010 The U.S Prime Rate (The Rate at which banks lend money to its biggest and best customers) has continued to stay unchanged at 3.25%. The U.S Prime Rate has been unchanged since December 16th, 2008 when it was at 3.75%. The next FOMC rate decision, which could have an effect on US prime Rates is on March 16th 2010 at 2:15(ET)
Global Perspective 6
US Prime Rate and 6-Month Treasury Bills


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| 13.6°C Belfast
Local authorities need to do more to protect people from harmful air pollution, health officials have said after new estimates suggest that thousands die every year as a result of poor air quality.
Long-term exposure to air pollution led to around 25,000 deaths in England in 2010, Public Health England (PHE) said.
The highest number of deaths were recorded in the south east of England where 4,034 deaths in people over the age of 25 were attributable to air pollution.
This was followed by the North West where 3,427 deaths were associated with particulate air pollution.
There were 3,389 deaths in London linked to poor air quality.
Other parts of England had between 2,000 and 3,000 deaths attributable to air pollution apart from the north east, where 1,199 deaths were associated with air pollution.
Last week swathes of England and Wales suffered extremely high pollution levels.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) predicted that large areas of the country would suffer the highest levels of pollution.
The dip in the air quality was caused by a combination of dust from the Sahara Desert, emissions from the continent, low south-easterly winds and domestic pollution.
A fresh air mass pushed the pollution away from Britain on Friday.
Health officials said that the latest estimates are for long-term exposure to pollutants, not short-term exposure to poor air quality as seen last week. But they said that short-term exposure can cause a range of adverse effects such as exacerbation of asthma and effects on lung function.
PHE published a list of local authorities and the number of deaths that are attributable to air pollution in each area.
The estimates are calculated using the average annual concentrations of man-made particles less than 2.5 microns in diameter, and the impacts on health.
PHE said that air quality has improved "considerably" in the UK in recent decades due to new cleaner technology and tighter environmental legislation. But it said that local action can be taken to reduce the emissions of these man-made particles and people's exposure to air pollution.
Dr Paul Cosford, PHE's director of health protection and medical director, said: "Policies that encourage a shift from motorised transport to walking and cycling would be expected to reduce total vehicle emissions, including particulate pollution.
"If this could be achieved in towns and cities, then we could expect local improvements in air quality. There would also be health benefits from increased physical activity through walking and cycling.
"Local authorities could also consider other measures to improve air quality, such as implementing low emission strategies as well as the appropriate design of green spaces."
Dr Sotiris Vardoulakis, PHE's head of air pollution and climate change, said: "The report has been produced to inform public health professionals and air quality specialists in local authorities about the likely effects of particle air pollution on public health. The estimates are intended to help local authorities consider air pollution among other public health issues.
"Much outdoor air pollution comes from burning fuels to generate heat and electricity and from vehicles. Measures that significantly reduce particulate air pollution or cut exposure would be regarded as important public health initiatives."
Friends of the Earth air pollution campaigner Jenny Bates said: "It's outrageous that tens of thousands of people die prematurely in England every year because of polluted air. Ending this national disgrace should be a top priority for politicians.
"Tougher measures are needed to tackle the causes of our dirty air, especially traffic pollution.
"Ministers and local authorities must develop an urgent action plan to introduce cleaner vehicles and encourage the use of alternative forms of transport - people won't be able to breathe easily until they do."
Dr Penny Woods, chief executive of the British Lung Foundation, said: "With the high levels of pollution we experienced last week there has been a lot of discussion about the short-term effects it can have on people's health, particularly to those living with a lung condition.
"However, this new report further highlights just how serious exposure to pollution can be to people's health in the long-term - this is something we urgently need to tackle."


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Addiction is treatable. Helping your child through recovery takes a lot of effort, but it can be done. It is important not to give up and to realize that, as a parent, you are not alone. Your hope that your child can return to a healthy, drug free life can make all the difference.
Here are some important facts that you should know about addiction:
- Addiction is a disease and a health problem that does not happen because someone is "bad."
- Addiction runs in families, just like cancer or heart disease. If your family has a history of alcoholism or drug addiction, explain to your child that they are at a higher risk for addiction.
- Many other people are facing the same problems. Substance abuse is common among teens and adults. Addiction doesn't discriminate. It cuts across race, gender, and economic lines.
- Know the warning signs and act early. If you suspect your child has a problem, find out now. Take the first step. Get Help
"Addiction...if you use drugs at a high enough dose, frequently enough, and for long enough, you literally change the way the brain works. You change the way nerve cells communicate in such a way that you develop this compulsive, out of control use despite knowing that all kinds of terrible things can happen to you, and despite even experiencing many of those things."
-- Definition of Addiction, by Dr. Steven Hyman, Director, National Institute of Mental Health
For a complete list of New Hampshire Alcohol and Drug Prevention and Treatment Services:


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by Joyce Clapp
I took this picture outside of the Elliot University Center last week, and posted it to my Facebook, along with the caption "I do so love working here", and it's true. I'm truly lucky in where I work, and I'm lucky that I can be out at UNCG.
I'm a professor in the Sociology department in addition to working with the BLS Program, and one thing that we social scientists talk about a lot is privilege. Being out carries privilege and is a privilege, even if we don't always think of it that way. Being out requires supportive coworkers, family, friends, and communities. Being out involves hoping that you're not at risk by virtue of being out. At risk can mean many things—being at risk physically or at risk for being fired (sexuality is not a nationally protected EEOC class, and is not protected in North Carolina). We worry about the risk of losing friends or family. We worry about being the target of bullying.
However, being out is also important, for those of us who live and work in places where it is safe to be so. Being out normalizes not being straight and having a non-standard gender presentation. The more we're out, the more it's safe to be out—until, hopefully, it will be safe for everyone. Until then, those of us who can be out should be out, and shouldn't criticize those who can't in the circumstances they're in.
So, in honor of National Coming Out Day, I just want to say that my name is Joyce. I'm genderqueer, a masculine-leaning woman, or just a woman depending on the day and how I'm contrary I'm feeling that day. ("Why do I need to qualify as 'masculine-leaning woman'? Can't 'woman' just look like this? Why do we have to attach adjectives to it?") I'm sapiosexual, pansexual, or bisexual depending on the audience and how much explaining I feel like doing. I also teach sociology, read too many books when I have time, love to cook, and live with the cutest dog on the planet (who is very lucky that he is so cute).
UNCG is not perfect on these issues—no institution is. But UNCG is good. I feel so lucky to work in a place where I can post something like this on a school blog, or mention my sexuality in class (in context, of course—we were discussing minority and majority relations) and have it not be a big deal. I'm sure someone has thought something about it at one point or the other, but I have never had one person criticize my sexuality or gender presentation in going on seven years at UNCG, and that's an amazing thing. Our society has changed so much in the last few years, and I would never have dreamed many years ago when I first came out, that I'd be able to live in the society we do and write something like this. Here's to things continuing to get better, for all of us—no matter who we love or how.
So, happy GLBTQIA2 history month, and happy National Coming Out Day!
A few resources:
LGBTQ Community at the Office of Multicultural Affairs


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Contempt, playing on TCM late Sunday/early Monday.
Of the new ones this week, I'm most excited about catching Days of Heaven myself (Monday on TCM), since it's part of the Easy Riders, Raging Bulls marathon. Don't know if I'll watch it right away, though; I'm trying to keep in somewhat chronological order watching those. Other notable newly features ones: West Side Story and Rebel Without a Cause on Tuesday, Alien on Wednesday (I'm long overdue a rewatch on that one), All the President's Men on Thursday, and Jean-Luc Godard's Contempt late Sunday/early Monday.
Monday, March 1
8:30am – IFC – American Splendor
Harvey Pekar is one of the more idiosyncratic graphic novelists there is ("comic book" doesn't quite cover his very adult, neurotic art), and Paul Giamatti brings him to life perfectly.
2003 USA. Directors: Shari Springer Berman & Robert Pulcini. Starring: Paul Giamatti, Hope Davis.
(repeats at 3:30pm)
10:15pm – TCM – Days of Heaven
Terrence Malick has made his reputation on only four films; this is his second, some five years after debut Badlands. I haven't watched it yet, but it's on the Easy Riders, Raging Bulls Marathon list, so I will be before long – and judging by the screencaps I've already seen, I'm expecting to love it.
1978 USA. Director: Terrence Malick. Starring: Richard Gere, Brooke Adams, Sam Shepard.
Newly Featured!
Tuesday, March 2
9:30am – TCM – The Maltese Falcon
Humphrey Bogart inhabits the role of Dashiell Hammett's private eye Sam Spade, creating one of the definitive on-screen hard-boiled detective (vying only with Bogart's Philip Marlowe in The Big Sleep, really). Not mention setting the early benchmark for noir films.
1941 USA. Director: John Huston. Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Peter Lorre, Sydney Greenstreet, Elisha Cook Jr, Walter Huston.
Must See
10:15am – IFC – Crimes and Misdemeanors
When Martin Landau's long-time mistress threatens to expose their affair unless he marries her, he's faced with the decision to let her ruin his life and career or have her murdered. In a tangentially and thematically-related story, Woody Allen is a documentary filmmaker forced into making a profile of a successful TV producer rather than the socially-conscious films he wants to make. One of Allen's most thoughtful and philosophically astute films – there are few answers here, but the questions will stay in your mind forever.
1989 USA. Director: Woody Allen. Starring: Woody Allen, Alan Alda, Martin Landau, Anjelica Huston, Claire Bloom, Joanna Gleason.
Must See
(repeats at 3:45pm)
11:00am – Sundance – Metropolitan
If Jane Austen made a movie in 1990 and set it among entitled Manhattan socialites, this would be it. The film follows a group of such entitled teens from party to party, focusing especially on the one outsider, a boy from the blue-collar class who has to rent a tux and pretend he likes to walk to avoid letting his new friends know he has to take the bus home. Though they find out soon enough, they keep him around because his intellectual nattering amuses them. In fact, it's quite amazing that this film is interesting at all, given the amount of pseudo-intellectual nattering that goes on, from all the characters. But from start to finish, it's both entertaining and an incisive look at the American class structure.
1990 USA. Director: Whit Stillman. Starring: Edward Clements, Chris Eigeman, Carolyn Farina, Taylor Nichols, Dylan Hundley.
4:00pm – TCM – Royal Wedding
This isn't one of the all-time great Fred Astaire musicals, but it's quite charming in its small way, and has the distinction of including the Fred's "dancing on the ceiling" extravaganza, as well as a few surprisingly competent dance numbers from Fred and not-dancer Jane Powell. Oh, and Fred's love interest is Sarah Churchill, Winston Churchill's daughter, which is interesting (Powell plays his sister).
1951 USA. Director: Stanley Donen. Starring: Fred Astaire, Jane Powell, Sarah Churchill, Peter Lawford.
6:00pm – TCM – West Side Story
I unabashedly love musicals, Shakespeare, and stylized choreography. Hence, I love West Side Story. I wish Richard Beymer and Natalie Wood were a little more interesting as the leads, but the supporting cast is electrifying enough that it doesn't much matter, especially with Bernstein and Sondheim music and Jerome Robbins choreography.
1961 USA. Director: Richard Wise & Jerome Robbins. Starring: Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, Russ Tamblyn, George Chakiris, Rita Moreno.
Must See
Newly Featured!
11:00pm – TCM – Rebel Without a Cause
Nicholas Ray's best-known movie (though not, I'd argue, his best), likely because it's one of James Dean's three films. Dean is a rebellious teen, hanging out with the wrong crowd, whose parents don't understand him. It all seems a little overwrought these days, but there's an intensity to Dean and the film that manages to make it still relatable.
1955 USA. Director: Nicholas Ray. Starring: James Dean, Natalie Wood, Sal Mineo.
Newly Featured!
Wednesday, March 3
11:30am – TCM – Adam's Rib
Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn take on the battle of the sexes as married lawyers on opposite sides of an assault case involving gender politics. It's a great movie in dialogue and acting, and still interesting for the 1949 view of women struggling for even basic equality. Some of its approach to gender may be a bit strange today, but…that's why it's interesting.
1949 USA. Director: George Cukor. Starring: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Judy Holliday, Tom Ewell, Jean Hagen, Gig Young
1:30pm – TCM – The Asphalt Jungle
The Asphalt Jungle was really MGM's first foray into noirish crime films. Being MGM, it's more polished and, to me, less interesting than the crime dramas that Warner Bros. and the smaller studios were putting out, but hey. It's still pretty good. And has a really young Marilyn Monroe.
1950 USA. Director: John Huston. Starring: Sterling Hayden, Louis Calhern, Jean Hagen, James Whitmore, Sam Jaffe.
3:30pm – TCM – Oklahoma!
I can't begin to guess how many times I watched Oklahoma! growing up, but it's well into double-digits. It's a nothing story, about minor conflicts between farmers and cowboys, a couple of young lovers, and the obsessive farmhand who wants the girl for himself. It's the way the music and dancing is integrated that's wonderful (and groundbreaking in the 1943 play the film is based on).
1955 USA. Director: Fred Zinnemann. Starring: Gordon MacRae, Shirley Jones, Rod Steiger, Gloria Grahame, Gene Nelson, Eddie Albert, Charlotte Greenwood, James Whitmore.
9:45pm – IFC – Volver
Pedro Almodóvar deftly straddles the line between drama and comedy in one of his more accessible films. Two sisters return to their home at the death of their aunt, only to find their mother's ghost – or is it a ghost? And as always in Almodóvar's films, there are related subplots aplenty. Penélope Cruz is incredible as the younger, fierier sister – she's never been more moving than in her passionate rendition of the title song, nor funnier than when calmly cleaning up a murder scene.
2006 Spain. Director: Pedro Almodóvar. Starring: Penélope Cruz, Carmen Maura, Lola Dueñas, Blanco Portillo, Yohana Cobo
Must See
10:15pm – TCM – Alien
Often considered one of the best sci-fi/horror creature features of all time (or just behind its sequel Aliens). Sigourney Weaver gets an iconic role as ass-kicking astronaut Ripley.
1979 USA. Director: Ridley Scott. Starring: Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, Ian Holm, John Hurt.
Newly Featured!
Thursday, March 4
6:00am – TCM – Four Daughters
Something of a high-B-level programmer, Four Daughters tells the fairly routine story of four sisters and their love interests; there's more to it than meets the eye, though, and starlet Priscilla Lane (notably of Arsenic and Old Lace) carries it well with her two sisters Lola and Rosemary. It's interesting to contrast with its 1954 musical remake Young at Heart, which boasts the greater star power of Doris Day and Frank Sinatra. They're virtually identical in script, but this one strikes a more sincere note with me.
1938 USA. Director: Michael Curtiz. Starring: Priscilla Lane, Claude Rains, John Garfield.
5:30pm – TCM –The Postman Always Rings Twice
Sizzling adaptation of James M. Cain's classic pulp novel has Lana Turner as the unhappy wife of a middle-of-nowhere gas station owner and John Garfield as the drifter who drops in and plots her husband's demise with her. Skip the 1982 remake, from what I've heard, but if you're feeling adventurous, check out Luchino Visconti's Ossession, a 1943 Italian adaptation of the novel widely considered to be a forerunner of the Italian Neo-Realist movement.
1946 USA. Director: Tay Garnett. Starring: Lana Turner, John Garfield, Cecil Kellaway, Hume Cronyn.
8:00pm – Sundance – A Prairie Home Companion
I've been taken to task for ignoring Robert Altman films in these write-ups, and I'll confess that's true due to my woeful ignorance of Altman films. Though I'm working to rectify this blind spot, I just haven't seen that many of his films, including this one, the last one he made before he died.
2006 USA. Director: Robert Altman. Starring: Woody Harrelson, Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, Lindsay Lohan, Virginia Madsen, John C. Reilly, Maya Rudolph, Lily Tomlin.
Newly Featured!
(repeats at 4:10am on the 5th)
9:00pm – TCM – To Have and Have Not
It's said that this film came about because Howard Hawks bet Earnest Hemingway that he (Hawks) could make a good film out of Hemingway's worst book. Of course, to do that, Hawks ended up basically changing the story entirely, but hey. It's the thought that counts. Mostly notable for being Lauren Bacall's first film, the one where she met Humphrey Bogart, and the one that spawned the immortal "you know how to whistle, don't you, Steve" bit of dialogue. That one scene? Worth the whole film.
1944 USA. Director: Howard Hawks. Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Walter Brennan.
11:00pm – TCM – All the President's Men
The Nixon and Watergate scandal is presented as a mystery almost, from the point of view of Woodward and Bernstein, the rookie Washington Post investigative reporters who broke the story. The film unfolds like a very good procedural, balancing the fact-finding itself with the roadblocks Woodward has to overcome at the paper because of his youth and inexperience. Not a showy film, but a really well-made one with excellent performances from Redford and Hoffman.
1976 USA. Director: Alan J. Pakula. Starring: Robert Redford, Dustin Hoffman, Jack Warden, Martin Balsam, Hal Holbrook.
Newly Featured!
1:30am (5th) – Sundance – The Death of Mr. Lazrescu
One of the major films in Romania's current cinematic resurgence – emphasis on realism, slow pacing, and in this case, the failures of the Romanian health care system, which shunts poor Mr. Lazarescu around from hospital to hospital as he gets sicker and sicker. I wasn't as captivated by this as I was by 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days by a longshot, but if you're interested in Romanian film, you oughta see it. If you didn't like 4 Months, though, you almost certainly won't like this. ;)
2005 Romania. Director: Cristi Puiu. Starring: Ion Fiscuteanu, Doru Ana, Monica Barladeanu, Doru Boguta.
Friday, March 5
7:00am – IFC – The Station Agent
One of the most pleasant surprises (for me, anyway) of 2003. Peter Dinklage moves into a train depot to indulge his love for trains and stay away from people, only to find himself befriended by a loquacious Cuban hot-dog stand keeper and an emotionally delicate Patricia Clarkson. A quiet but richly rewarding film.
2003 USA. Director: Thomas McCarthy. Starring: Peter Dinklage, Patricia Clarkson, Bobby Cannavale.
(repeats at 12:30pm)
8:35am – IFC – Maria Full of Grace
Once in a while a film comes out of nowhere and floors me – this quiet little film about a group of South American women who agree to smuggle drugs into the United States by swallowing packets of cocaine did just that. Everything in the film is perfectly balanced, no element overwhelms anything else, and it all comes together with great empathy, but without sentimentality.
2004 USA. Director: Joshua Marston. Starring: Catalina Sandino Moreno, Virginia Ariza, Yenny Paola Vega.
(repeats at 2:00pm)
Saturday, March 6
8:30am – TCM – The Ladykillers
One of the most delightful of the Ealing comedies, with Alec Guinness leading a bunch of crooks (including a young Peter Sellers) whose bankrobbing plans get flustered by an unlikely old lady.
1955 UK. Director: Alexander Mackendrick. Starring: Alec Guinness, Cecil Parker, Herbert Lom, Peter Sellers.
Must See
1:30pm – IFC – My Life as a Dog
Lasse Hallstrom gives us this simple but effective coming-of-age story, focusing on the every day life of a young boy as he's sent to live in a provincial village after acting out at home.
1985 Sweden. Director: Lasse Hallstrom. Starring: Anton Glanzelius, Tomas von Brömssen, Anki Lidén, Melinda Kinnaman.
(repeats at 5:00am on the 7th)
5:30pm – TCM – On the Beach
After nuclear war, most of humanity is destroyed; a small outpost in Australia survives, but not for long. See David's longer take here;.
1959 USA. Director: Stanley Kramer. Starring: Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, Fred Astaire.
8:00pm – TCM – A Streetcar Named Desire
A Streetcar Named Desire won Vivien Leigh her second Oscar as fading Southern belle Blanche DuBois, and made a star out of Marlon Brando. It's also one of the films I'm most embarrassed to say I've never seen. I even have it on DVD somewhere! Someday, I will get to it.
1951 USA. Director: Elia Kazan. Starring: Marlon Brando, Vivien Leigh, Kim Stanley, Karl Malden.
10:00pm – Sundance – Nights of Cabiria
Nights of Cabiria, one of the films Federico Fellini made during his sorta-neo-realist phase, casts Masina as a woman of the night, following her around almost non-committally, yet with a lot of care and heart. And Masina is simply amazing in everything she does – not classically beautiful, but somehow incredibly engaging for every second she's onscreen.
1957 Italy. Director: Federico Fellini. Starring: Giulietta Masina, François Périer, Franca Marzi.
Must See
(repeats at 4:20am on the 7th)
2:30am (7th) – TCM – Blackboard Jungle
Glenn Ford is the teacher who takes on rowdy inner-city kids in one of the earlier "heroic teacher" films. A young Sidney Poitier is one of the students, and a scene in which a record of "Rock Around the Clock" is played is reputed to be the first time rock n' roll appeared in a film.
1955 USA. Director: Richard Brooks. Starring: Glenn Ford, Anne Francis, Louis Calhern, Sidney Poitier.
4:15am (7th) – TCM – The Killers (1946)
Burt Lancaster made his film debut in this excellent noir, an expansion of an Ernest Hemingway short story. Lancaster is a quiet gas station attendant killed in the opening of the film by two hitmen – the events that lead up to his death (involving, among other things, a classic femme fatale played by Ava Gardner) are told in flashback throughout the rest of the film.
1946 USA. Director: Robert Siodmak. Starring: Burt Lancaster, Ava Gardner, Edmond O'Brien, Albert Dekker, Sam Levene.
Sunday, March 7
10:15pm – TCM – The Big Knife
Clifford Odets' searing play about his hatred of Hollywood comes to the screen, with Jack Palance mugging as a frustrated actor who wants out of his contract, but can't get out because the studio is blackmailing him. Between Odets' overly poetic dialogue, director Robert Aldrich's melodramatic style, and Palance's scenery-chewing, this is a camptastic good time.
1955 USA. Director: Robert Aldrich. Starring: Jack Palance, Ida Lupino, Wendell Corey, Jean Hagen, Rod Steiger, Shelley Winters.
2:00am (8th) – TCM – Contempt
One of Jean-Luc Godard's most consciously self-reflexive films, and that is saying a lot for someone who uses self-reflexivity the way most people use water. It took me longer to warm to this film than most of Godard's (perhaps because of seeing it earlier than some of his lighter fare), but there's a lot here to chew on, and a lot to enjoy, from the comments on his own relationship with Anna Karina to the foibles of filmmaking to the misunderstandings of translation.
1963 France. Director: Jean-Luc Godard. Starring: Michel Piccoli, Brigitte Bardot, Jack Palance, Fritz Lang.
Must See
Newly Featured!
4:00am (8th) – TCM – The Bad and the Beautiful
Vincente Minnelli directs Kirk Douglas, Lana Turner, Dick Powell, and Gloria Grahame in one of the best dark-side-of-Hollywood noirish films this side of Sunset Boulevard.
1952 USA. Director: Vincente Minnelli. Starring: Kirk Douglas, Lana Turner, Dick Powell, Gloria Grahame.


text:
We like holidays around here. We don't get many trick-or-treaters in our neck of the woods, but I always enjoy seeing macabre or funny Halloween decor as I drive or walk around a neighborhood so...for your viewing pleasure... our spider's lair.
I always smile to myself as I clean off the real cobwebs on the front door and then put up the fake ones. We humans are such funny creatures really.
What have we been up to around the 2-flat this year? Well, nothing more glamorous than cleaning up our basement laundry room (visualize removing 1930's tile and black mastic from the floor with Soy Gel and Steve power-washing the stone foundation walls after stripping crumbling paint with more Soy Gel), concrete repairs and various and sundry in this category. Small progress, but now I can go into the laundry room without feeling like I am visiting a serial killer's lair. That counts for something.
Actually, Steve built a lifetime warrantied Tenant Storage Locker and a nice laundry room table too. I will try to post some after photos, but it's not a Pottery Barn laundry room or anything.
Okay, so I managed a post. Now I need to see what you all have been up to...Happy Halloween everyone!


text:
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If you need to return an item we offer a 30 Days return option. Please click here for further information.


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America's passionate obsession with coffee is a $30 billion industry, and most adults drink coffee in some form or fashion. But just how much does the average consumer know about coffee? From its origins to its caffeine kick and even how it got to your local retailer, we're offering you the chance to test your java knowledge in our quiz.
Posted 21 September 2011


text:
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow#27 on top 500 poets
» Click to list general statistics » OR, select a date :
The Arsenal At Springfield
This is the Arsenal. From floor to ceiling,
Like a huge organ, rise the burnished arms;
But front their silent pipes no anthem pealing
Startles the villages with strange alarms.
read more >>
- Hits: Number of visitors who read the poem on the given date.
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I am making a 3D game with OpenGL (via LWJGL) and I have been using a 3 dimensional array to store every vertex from models. (for collision detection, and knowing what is where)
From the World class:
this.length = 700; this.width = 700; this.height = 700; this.multiplier = 100; this.data = new GameObject[length][height][width];
But when I do this, I run out of heap space. This seems like an obviously bad way of doing things, but I don't know how else to do it.
I had 2 possible ideas:
1. There is another, better way of storing large amounts of data
2. I make a method like this
public List<GameObject> allObjectsInWorld = new ArrayList<GameObject>(); public GameObject getObjectAt(int x, int y, int z) { for(int i = 0; i < allObjectsInWorld.size(); i++) { GameObject cur = allObjectsInWorld.get(i); for(int j = 0; j < cur.model.vertices.length; j++) { if(cur.model.vertices.get(j) == new Vector3f(x, y, z)) { return cur; } } } return null; }


text:
Ran 8.7 miles @ 9:04/mile pace.
Trails coated with packed snow.
Extremely hilly.
Lower-mid 20s, sunny.
I met up with my friend Ian at Pineland Farms for some trail running, but neither of us were sure if it'd be possible because of the snow storm we got a few days ago. I brought along my XC skis just in case, Ian his snowshoes, and an extra pair for me if we deemed that was the route we'd go (I own a pair, but they're essentially boats. Not good for running). Turns out the trails were packed down enough so we ran.
The hills were of course buttkickers and even though the snow was packed, it still made the going slower but at the same timed provided a great workout. I was pleased with how I did overall, though the knee does feel pretty darn sore and will need some rest. Ian planned on a much longer run, so I left him to that once I got in the mileage I wanted to do. Good day.


text:
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Agon: The Kleos Cup, Dreamation '09
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Topic: Agon: The Kleos Cup, Dreamation '09 (Read 10944 times)
Posts: 1675
Please call me Judd.
Agon: The Kleos Cup, Dreamation '09
February 23, 2009, 09:36:01 PM »
Ever since reading Agon I have thought it was tailor-made for convention tournaments, like competitive deals that you read about as jokes in Knights of the Dinner Table only in Agon, because of the rules, it effin' works, man. It works!
So, it worked.
Well, kinda.
The tournament format was totally miscommunicated, so the bulk of our players were in the second slot. It was a fubar, as the second slot was supposed to be comprised of the best from the two tables in the first slot.
Ah well.
We played a nifty scenario called the Beast of Kolkoris. Nathan ran it and I played alongside Joel, a nice guy I had just met. Two player Agon is a kinda lukewarm thing but it was great to brush up on my Agon and fantastic to meet Joel.
I didn't particularly like the Beasts of Kolkoris adventure all that much. It was interesting but there is a kind of moral dilemma at the heart of it that I think is out of place in Agon a bit. I dunno. Maybe I am wrong. I just want to oil up and spear some mofo's, ya know?
While playing I found several pieces of scrap paper with quest concepts scrawled on them. They were:
Zeus wants you to kill the renegade Cyclops and give the lightning bolts back to the clouds:
- Climb Mt. Cylon
- Find out who is supplying him with molten primordial lightning
- Lift the renegade's hammer and throw it back into the heavens
Hera wants you to destroy the Holiest of Bastards, a horde of bandits who claim to be scions of her husband.
- find their keep in the Swan Forest
- Make their leader publically deny his holy lineage on the steps of Hera's Temple
- (nothing there but obviously a spot for one more thing)
Artemis wants you to set the Lion of Argos free
- sneak into Argos, past the walls
- defeat the Sons of Argos
- defeat the King of Argos
- break the Lion's chains, forged by Hephaestus
I immediately wanted to run the Renegade Cyclops adventure, so on Saturday afternoon, after taking a much-needed nap, I wrote it up before we met at 8 o'clock. It was easy but I will note below how it could have been made better and thoughts on how I would do future quest designs
Saturday, we had a table of five.
Nathan, my co-organizer, played Clear-Eyed Leonidas
Eppy, one of my many roomates for the con played Strong-Limbed Argos
Ralph, who I have managed to have several cool conversations over the years at Dreamation played Long-limbed Thyros the Mighty.
Greg played in an early 1st Quest playtest two years ago. He walked in late and asked if we had room at the table and we thought five would be a great number for the adventure. He played Wise-Eyed Gladavus.
Both Jason and Julie I had never met before. They seemed to be dating. Jason played Beast-Master Shylax and Julie played Wise-Eyed Sophia.
I wrote the strife point accounting I had done on a manila envelope and really liked that. I will write Agon adventure details on manila envelopes in the future. That was handy, to have my adventure written on the thing holding the character sheets and other play-tools.
I haven't run Agon in a long, long time and honestly, I wasn't too damned adept at it. For the first hour and a half, I just hammered on the players.
After the Oaths were done (Ralph took a beating in the oaths section of play), I just hammered on them.
"The sheer cliffs of Mt. Cylon loom before you! Who can climb its sheer rock!" Not being able to climb it just mean that I had a bonus die for the next challenge, in which the Storm Eagles attacked. Honestly, the storm was originally just a storm but I felt bad that Jason had made up a Beast-Master and wouldn't get to use him, so I tossed them in as beasts. Originally, those eagles were just a storm but I liked them being eagles that shot lightning from their beaks.
Then there was an avalanche challenge. Then the Cylon Legionaires attacked.
This was an hour or more of me hammering on the PC's. I called a bathroom break and asked Nathan for some advice on how to slow things down and shift into a different gear. Turns out, I needed to relax and just play a role-playing game a bit. I had stuck my head into these challenges and had forgotten to do so.
I described Cylon's Crown, the fell city the renegade Cyclops had made at the top of the mountain, and allowed the players to challenge each other a bit and interact with the populace. I tossed in a young hero for the players to impress. That was a huge deal.
Giving these great heroes an audience changed the game. They sought to impress him, to talk him out of joining the Cylon Legions as he said he wanted to. Eppy won the young hero's services and had him carry his helmet for the rest of the adventure.
Ralph and Sophia made short work of the Cyclops and in the final tally, even after owing everyone oaths, Ralph won the Kleos Cup and won the highest roll with 20 on a defense roll, I believe.
That was an awesome amount of fun and I'd love to run a proper tournament at Dexcon and the next Dreamation.
- I'd never put just minions or just NPC's in a combat again. A mix is key. It'd be good to have statted out, some Cylon Legionnaire Minions, an officer legionnaire NPC and several eagle minions along with an eagle beast NPC. That way, for the final battle I could have had some eagles along with the Cyclops. He got cut down in short order.
- I have to get my head out of CHALLENGE-CHALLENGE-CHALLENGE and think about role-playing a bit and giving it all context and meaning.
- I wonder if the heroic trait, Long-Limbed is broken. This isn't from Ralph's well-earned win but also from the previous game with Joel, where long-limbed ruled the roost.
- I was worried that Julie didn't enjoy herself at all, not because it is my responsibility to provide enjoyment but it worried me nonetheless.
That is a damned fun game. I want me some cool little ancient-looking Greek coins to use for tokens on the battle-map.
Githyanki Diaspora, a blog
Posts: 69
Re: Agon: The Kleos Cup, Dreamation '09
Reply #1 on:
February 24, 2009, 04:44:59 AM »
Hi, this is the aforementioned Jason. The storm eagles weren't in the original plan? I never would've known, but thanks--I really liked that twist on it. And not just because I got +2 position vs. beasts; there's so many myths and legends of things like thunderbirds that I appreciated the bird-storm connection on that level.
Giuli is my wife. She can get temperamental about her games, though; some she really likes, some she just doesn't, and when she doesn't, she kind of, well, just shuts down, like you saw. Unfortunately, it seems that Agon simply isn't her kind of game. Don't take it personally; it has nothing to do with your game-running skills, and like you said, it isn't your responsibility to pull up the fun truck, either. It's just the way she responds when a game doesn't suit her.
Jason Godesky
Posts: 1675
Please call me Judd.
Re: Agon: The Kleos Cup, Dreamation '09
Reply #2 on:
February 24, 2009, 07:34:10 AM »
Quote from: jefgodesky on February 24, 2009, 04:44:59 AM
Giuli is my wife. She can get temperamental about her games, though; some she really likes, some she just doesn't, and when she doesn't, she kind of, well, just shuts down, like you saw. Unfortunately, it seems that Agon simply isn't her kind of game. Don't take it personally; it has nothing to do with your game-running skills, and like you said, it isn't your responsibility to pull up the fun truck, either. It's just the way she responds when a game doesn't suit her.
Oh yeah, man, I wasn't mad at her or mad at me or mad at any level. My response is akin to you and Giuli (sorry for the misspelling of her name above) coming over to my house and not enjoying my chili because it is just too spicy.
Githyanki Diaspora, a blog
Mel White
Posts: 98
Re: Agon: The Kleos Cup, Dreamation '09
Reply #3 on:
February 24, 2009, 09:45:55 AM »
Nice write-up--I appreciate the insights into the roleplaying aspects of Agon. The quest ideas are a bonus I'm filing away for future use!
Virtual Play: A podcast of roleplaying games
John Harper
Posts: 1054
flip you for real
Re: Agon: The Kleos Cup, Dreamation '09
Reply #4 on:
February 24, 2009, 01:19:00 PM »
This makes me so happy. Thanks for the write-up, Judd.
Long-limbed is... a very good heroic trait. It can be a big problem to be really good at something in Agon, but only if your fellow heroes are on the ball.
: An ancient Greek RPG. Prove the glory of your name!
Posts: 1675
Please call me Judd.
Re: Agon: The Kleos Cup, Dreamation '09
Reply #5 on:
February 24, 2009, 04:14:42 PM »
Another cool moment just occurred to me:
It was the last test of the game and it came down to Might, to see who could toss the cyclops' hammer back to Olympus, back to Zeus. Throughout the game, Eppy's character, Argos had been talking up the might of Ares and talking down Zeus and he won the Might contest handily. So I narrated the hammer flying up to the clouds and landing at Ares' feet.
It is interesting to me with the abstracted combat and the board gaminess of it how incredibly important those little bits of color can be. In a campaign, that would have ended up being important down the road, methinks.
Githyanki Diaspora, a blog
Posts: 5582
Re: Agon: The Kleos Cup, Dreamation '09
Reply #6 on:
March 03, 2009, 10:09:08 AM »
Hey, I totally missed this thread!
Long Limbed (or Far Reaching as I believe its called) isn't broken, its just more subtle than some of the other ones that give a definitive bonus against stuff.
To come clean, I "cheated" a bit. In the sense that I gambled that none of the other players had enough experience with Agon to recognize what I was doing with my character. If I'd been playing with Agon veterans, I've no doubt that Thyros the might would have gotten smoked.
First I built a character without any d12 stats which let me have more d10 stats. Plus I sold a bunch of stats down to d4 to buy more up to d8. This wound up not coming into play much because there was very little using of Helping dice in the game. This is because you were throwing a never ending stream of d12 challenges at us. A d12 challenge in Agon will never draw out resources, because its just not a good trade off to impair d8 traits to hope to beat it. If you'd used more d8 or even d10 challenges I think you would have seen alot more Impairment...because rolling an extra 2d8 against a d8 challenge is worthwhile. Plus rolling an extra d6 vs. a d8 is more worthwhile than rolling an extra d10 vs. a d12 because you care less about burning a ubiquitous d6 than burning a valuable d10. You could have burned alot more of our resources with middle challenges. Since you didn't the fact that I wasn't relying on a single big stat I couldn't afford to burn didn't help me much.
Having built a character with a bunch of d4 skills I made myself a total target for Oaths. That was fine with me because I figured a) the players really wouldn't know how to use those Oaths effectively yet, and b) I could probably rely on the default "party mentality" to protect me from being too abused by all the oaths I owed. I think in the end only 2 oaths got called, 1 was on a roll and using a stat that didn't really matter. Only Nathan really used one of my oaths to hose me, forcing me to waste a die I needed on a challenge to help him instead (amusingly he rolled so bad he came in last in that challenge despite taking my best die). In a game with more experienced players those Oaths would have laid me low. I also made a point of making my challenge against a strong skill rather than picking on a d4, and loudly proclaiming how noble I was for not taking advantage of people. That was mostly just some fun roleplaying, but it may also have helped keep me from being targeted.
But the real min maxing was that I took Far Reaching, Sword and Shield, and every piece of armor I could. This is a potentially dangerous combination. Far Reaching is most effective with Spear when it allows truly long ranged melee, and heavy armor is really only effective with long range attacks because of the positioning penalties. I was hoping we'd have a few indoor scenes so I could balance my positioning penalty against by positioning bonus when inside, but I don't think we had any.
What taking Sword enabled me to do was get the first attack in, killing minions before the spear and bow folk were able to. Swords only use d6s, but the extra d6 actually maxes out often enough that exploding the die with fate makes multiple d6 better (in many cases) than a d8 (if you have the fate to spend). What the Far Reaching enabled me to do was have more minions in my effective range without taking the -2 penalty. And what the heavy armor allowed me to do was bounce a couple of your nasty hits on me when I got bum rushed by the minions.
All of which would have back fired if people had used their positioning moves to get me out of the way. You sent me to the back once with your positioning moves which rendered me largely ineffective for that battle, but only Nathan groked the game enough to try to block me out so I was able to get away with a character build that normally one couldn't get away with.
I really like the tactical interplay of all the different options and potentials for conflict in Agon. I think its weakest points are that sometimes the skillfull play required by the GM to challenge the players can lead to not fun tactics (the brutal turtle strategy can be devastating to hit the players with, but its not so much fun to face). That and the multiple die types / roll high mechanic means that there are some rolls where you just can't win without getting a lucky max out roll and spending fate.
I wonder if a roll low mechanic where rolling a 1 means "you came in first" would work better, that way d4s would be the best dice but it would be possible to roll a 1 even on a really poor d12. Where as currently its impossible to roll a 12 on a really poor d4. It would also help eliminate some of the whiffiness of rolling a 1 or a 2 on your best die. With a roll low option the worst you could get on your best die is a 4.
What this would do is mean your best dice reliably produce great rolls (there's no possibility of Hercules being unable to lift a pebble because he rolled a 1 on his d12 Might) and that ALL of your dice are potentially worth impairing for assistance because any die could possible get lucky enough to win. Which would increase the use of the impairment mechanic dramatically, I think...even if the GM was using the most difficult challenges.
Ralph Mazza
Universalis: The Game of Unlimited Stories
John Harper
Posts: 1054
flip you for real
Re: Agon: The Kleos Cup, Dreamation '09
Reply #7 on:
March 03, 2009, 11:53:09 AM »
Very nice character build there, Ralph. Playing on the party mentality of first-timers is a great move, too. People sometimes dismiss the importance of roleplaying in the competitive parts of the game, but playing a noble and kind character can be a powerful defense against getting hosed by your fellow heroes, thus allowing you to play an even more twinked-out character -- as you showed here.
Your low-roll idea is intriguing. I'm not sure if
achievement is what I want in Agon -- there's something to be said for the cruelty of fate and rolls that you just can't win. But your reasoning is sound and it's certainly worth a playtest to see how it performs at the table.
: An ancient Greek RPG. Prove the glory of your name!
Posts: 1675
Please call me Judd.
Re: Agon: The Kleos Cup, Dreamation '09
Reply #8 on:
March 03, 2009, 12:26:05 PM »
You obviously deserved to win the Kleos Cup because you were obviously playing Agon at a higher level than anyone else at the table.
Our short conversation after the game about pairing minions with NPC's and Monsters was really eye-opening for me.
Oddly, playing Agon has inspired me to want to play some 4e in the coming month.
Githyanki Diaspora, a blog
Nathan P.
Posts: 590
emotional game design
Re: Agon: The Kleos Cup, Dreamation '09
Reply #9 on:
March 03, 2009, 02:38:41 PM »
I learned that there's really not a good matching missile build to the Far-Reaching melee build, cuz I was kind of trying for it, but the fact that bows go last meant that it's not as effective...at least, not against minions. If there had been more named characters, it may have been a slightly different story.
I did try to hose Ralph with positioning rolls when I could, but I often felt that it was more worth it to use those to try and break up the minions, especially the goddam eagles. But yes, I bow to Ralph's superior grasp of the game tactics...this time.
This time.
Nathan P.
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Re: Agon: The Kleos Cup, Dreamation '09
Reply #10 on:
March 03, 2009, 02:43:26 PM »
Wow, Ralph -- kudos. Your assumptions definitely payed off. I had no idea all that was going on.
Jason Godesky
Posts: 1675
Please call me Judd.
Re: Agon: The Kleos Cup, Dreamation '09
Reply #11 on:
March 03, 2009, 04:41:02 PM »
Quote from: Valamir on March 03, 2009, 10:09:08 AM
This is because you were throwing a never ending stream of d12 challenges at us. A d12 challenge in Agon will never draw out resources, because its just not a good trade off to impair d8 traits to hope to beat it. If you'd used more d8 or even d10 challenges I think you would have seen alot more Impairment...because rolling an extra 2d8 against a d8 challenge is worthwhile. Plus rolling an extra d6 vs. a d8 is more worthwhile than rolling an extra d10 vs. a d12 because you care less about burning a ubiquitous d6 than burning a valuable d10. You could have burned alot more of our resources with middle challenges. Since you didn't the fact that I wasn't relying on a single big stat I couldn't afford to burn didn't help me much.
That is really interesting and is the paragraph I have come back to this thread in order to read it over and over.
There's a strategy to throwing out medium challenges; that is something I had never considered at all, really.
Githyanki Diaspora, a blog
John Harper
Posts: 1054
flip you for real
Re: Agon: The Kleos Cup, Dreamation '09
Reply #12 on:
March 03, 2009, 04:44:16 PM »
Oh, hey. I owe someone (Ralph) a t-shirt prize, don't I?
: An ancient Greek RPG. Prove the glory of your name!
Posts: 5582
Re: Agon: The Kleos Cup, Dreamation '09
Reply #13 on:
March 03, 2009, 05:50:00 PM »
Judd, when I read my own paragraph you quoted alls I get is a whole bunch of rambling confusion :-)
Kudos to you for deciphering it.
John, if so...sweet. Your t-shirts are teh hawt.
Ralph Mazza
Universalis: The Game of Unlimited Stories
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- ZA ArchitectsWith the advent of technologies such as 3D printers that can operate in space and genetically engineered brick-forming bacteria, the idea of building a colony of Mars no longer seem so far-fetched. The German firm, ZA Architects is proposing plans for a large, underground network of caverns to begin the population of the Red Planet. Relying primarily on robots, the machines will pave the way for humans to eventually live on Earth's neighbor.1
- ZA ArchitectsWhile ZA Architects acknowledges that current technologies are not sufficient to carry out their plans, they believe that robotics will advance enough by 2023 to fabricate the underground dwellings.2
- ZA ArchitectsIn the first stage, a rocket would be sent to Mars carrying robots that would start by carving large caverns in the basalt bedrock.3
- ZA ArchitectsThe machines would choose areas where the basalt had cooled to form hexagonal columns, and the weakest spots would be removed to form hollow spaces.4
- ZA ArchitectsAfter making a cathedral-like interior, the robots would weave webs of basalt fibers to form floors and differentiate levels.5
- ZA ArchitectsOnce the overall shell is completed, an astronaut mission will be sent to Mars. There, humans will secure an oxygen and water supply by fabricating a soil glacier and basalt processing plant.6
- ZA ArchitectsMartian soil will also be used to cultivate crops such as asparagus to provide food for the colony.7


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A collection of scholarly works about individual liberty and free markets. A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.
? - —
Historical Period:
The 20th Century and Beyond
Brooks has held fellowships at the Huntington Library and at the National Humanities Center and is a Lecturer in History at the University of Durham.


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I have just finished a great little Bible Study written by a good friend of mine who used to work at my home church before the Lord moved her to a new place in life. And He moved me and my family across the ocean too. Thankfully we can still keep in touch through email and facebook and her blog. This is an affiliate link to her little study on Titus 2:3-5. I especially like her plan of going through the alphabet listing various attributes and characteristics of God as a concrete way to praise Him. I have appreciated something tangible to help me retrain my frail brain that likes to tend towards worry and negativity. This simple little task is helping me move the focus off me and onto my perfect God. I highly recommend this study called The ABC's of T23. If you use my link I will get a small % of the purchase but go order it, even if you don't use my link!
Click here to view more details
Brenda is also posting this month of November as a month of gratitude and I am loving her short devotionals and the plan to allow me to focus on being thankful for someone in my life each day of November. This daily action of gratitude is also doing wonders to change my outlook from gray and dreary to a more positive approach to my life as God has it right now.
Needing a pick me up in your thoughts and attitudes today? Head on over to Petals From The Basket and get a little gratitude in your attitude.


text:
For 140 years, HSHS hospitals and affiliated physicians have embraced innovation. We adopt best practices, share our successes, and put into practice those processes and procedures that are proven to be reliable and predictable. We strive to be top ranked performers in quality and safety.
With information, people can make better choices about where to receive care. The following quality and performance resources are available, such as Centers for Medicare & Medicaid (CMS), The Joint Commission, Illinois Hospital Association (IHA), Wisconsin Hospital Association, and Wisconsin Health Information Organization (WHIO). At HSHS, we remain focused on constantly raising our standards to improve the health of the people we serve.


text:
Royal Bank of Canada Management Proxy Circular Now Available Français
Feb 04, 2013, 10:42 ET
TORONTO, Feb. 4, 2013 /CNW/ - Royal Bank of Canada (RY on TSX and NYSE) today announced it has filed with securities regulators and is mailing to shareholders its Notice of Annual and Special Meeting of Common Shareholders and Management Proxy Circular for 2013. The circular is also available online at rbc.com/governance.
The circular contains information about RBC's annual meeting, scheduled to take place on Thursday, February 28, 2013 in Calgary, including the election of directors, the appointment of the bank's auditor and proposals from shareholders. The circular also includes a detailed explanation of the board's 2012 performance evaluation and compensation decisions for RBC President and Chief Executive Officer, Gordon Nixon, and other named executive officers.
RBC delivered record earnings of $7.5 billion in 2012, up 17 per cent from the prior year, with a return on common equity of 19.3 per cent and achieved a one-year total shareholder return of 22 per cent*. Earnings from continuing operations of $7.6 billion were up nine per cent from the prior year.
The board awarded Mr. Nixon total direct compensation of $12.6 million for 2012. This includes $11.1 million of variable compensation, of which 74 per cent is deferred. His compensation was 12 per cent above the established target and reflects the fact that Mr. Nixon met or exceeded a balanced combination of financial, risk, strategic, client and employee objectives for the year. RBC also met or exceeded the financial performance objectives used to measure its progress against its medium-term total shareholder return objectives, including exceeding return on equity and diluted earnings per share growth.
"In 2012, RBC extended its leadership in Canada while building on the momentum outside of its domestic market through consistent execution of its diversified business strategy," said David O'Brien, chairman of the Board of Directors. "RBC is well positioned to continue delivering shareholder value."
RBC further strengthened the alignment of compensation to evolving best practices and shareholder interests. For example, for 2012 RBC again reduced the weighting of stock options in the mid-and long-term incentive mix for named executive officers.
The board believes that shareholders should have a say on its approach to compensation, and recommends that shareholders approve the 'say-on-pay' advisory vote at the upcoming annual meeting.
*(as at October 31, 2012)
For further information:
Karen McCarthy, Investor Relations, RBC, 416 955-7809
Tanis Feasby, Financial Communications, RBC, 416 955-5172


text:
five years marriedMarch 26th, 2013
Ali and I recently celebrated five years of marriage by getting back into our wedding clothes and doing a wetplate collodium portrait (three second exposure!) with Giles Clement.
My friend Gwyneth just relocated to Portland (yay!) and we asked her to help out with my hair (in addition to being a very talented photographer, she went to beauty school). Isn't the hair fabulous and period? We also asked her to do some portraits of us in the home before we went out for our session with Giles.
photo: Gwyneth Colleen
Gwyn had the idea to recreate one of our favorite photos she took on our wedding day in 2008. The one on the left is her 2008 version in San Francisco's Chinatown. The right is her 2013 version in Portland's Chinatown. HOT TUB TIME MACHINE*
photo: Gwyneth Colleen
* note: I have never seen that movie but my husband and I like to shout that to one another every once in awhile


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According to archaeological finds on the island but also in historical sources, the ancient city of Mykonos was founded in the 11th century by Iones from Athens who with their leader Ippokli, son of Nilea, settled in the place of present day Chora. Mykonos has close ties to Delos and was a member of the Delian alliance. During the height of Delos, Mykonos experienced prosperity due to the economic boom of the neighboring island but with the disaster of Delos it fell into obscurity.
After a Byzantine period, from 1204 with the fall of the City to the Franks, the island is taken over by the Venetians. Since then many have passed through the island: Catalans, pirates occasionally, Turks of course and for a short period during the period of Great Aikaterinis and Orlof, the Russians as well until the liberation of 1821.
In about the middle of the 20th century, Mykonos "was discovered" by the locals and foreigners resulting in becoming one of the most touristic sites in the world. The inhabitants easily adapted to the new conditions, a fact which produced the successful tourist model of Mykonos. Led by intuition and hard work, the people of Mykonos ensured their island glory and wealth.
Today the island of Mykonos is supplementing their infrastructure, improving the services offered and firmly claiming an eminent position in international tourism.
Visitgreece.gr is the official tourism web site for Greece, run by the Greek National Tourism Organisation, where you'll find information on the main tourist destinations, such as cities, beaches, as well as activities, events and much more!
All content included on this site consists intellectual property of GNTO and you are not allowed to reproduce the whole or part of this work in any way.
For information please contact: email@example.com. All Rights Reserved. GNTO © 2020.


text:
This is the email being urgently sent around to "handle" the entheta "that comes up in your life" (ie if you have been anywhere near the internet, TV or print media over the last week).
The "positioning" game is going full roar.
By their very actions the church are PROVING exactly what Leah said. When she asked "Where's Shelly" Tommy Davis told her its "above her fucking pay grade" to even ask and she ended up being sec checked…. For expressing concern over the whereabouts of someone she had known for MANY years. Of course, such a question is only "entheta" if it misses the withholds of the person who is asked. It is a VERY normal question under the circumstances. Wife of Tom's "best man" and someone who had spent a good deal of time at Tom's homes in LA and Telluride and had been flown around on his plane. Suddenly not in attendance at his wedding? Maybe she was ill? Maybe she broke her leg? Maybe her sister died? In which case the answer would have been simple. But because she had been "disappeared" it was an "inappropriate" question.
And now the church is trying to position that same question being carried in the media as "entheta"?
Or the other "entheta" circulating around are claims that the church is breaking up families with disconnection. Why is that entheta?
It's NOT because it doesnt happen and is just a lie (Thomas Davis tried that line and he was laughed at by the whole world).
They COULD just own up to it and say "This is our right and it is a sincerely held religious belief" — but they think the PR would be so bad it would scare people away (they are right). Plus it would present some REAL problems for D/Dear Leader as he might then be asked questions about his relationships with Nicole and Katie. How is it that the run-of-the-mill Scientologist is forced to disconnect from family members (including children) who remain connected to "SPs" (and Nicole and Katie have done a LOT more to "deserve" that title than the vast majority of "nobodies" who have been declared).
So, perhaps it ISNT really such a "sincerely held religious belief." Perhaps it is actually just a convenient way of controlling people as the mood suits the powers that be.
Thus it seems the new definition of entheta is any question for which we don't have a good answer that doesnt make us look bad….
That leaves just one thing to do.
Find an out of context LRH quote and shoe horn it into the situation to make the sheeple believe that this is what LRH was talking about — "see, it must be entheta otherwise why would they have picked this quote"?
I thought you should have this LRH data to help you in dealing with any entheta that comes up in your life. I would love to hear your feedback on it!
Lv, Milan
"All right. Now we take entheta. There's some weird attraction between entheta and theta. They seem to come together with a dull thump. Every time you put out a theta line, for some cockeyed reason, below 2.0 will attack it madly. Either below 2.0 is trying to bail itself out on the strength of the entheta or thinks everything that is theta has to be entheta. Therefore, you see the most confoundedly dull attacks on the subject of Dianetics and Scientology. You see the doggonedest things! And nobody could possibly think or believe those things, just nobody. There's more rumors and more garbage thrown around on this line.
"Well, the best reason is, is in this society today possibly about the highest theta line that anybody is putting out rather consistently happens to be Dianetics and Scientology. It says you have a chance to be free; it says you have a — you have a perfect right to your own sanity, it says you have a perfect right to your own life, it says you can help others to be free — it says a lot of things. It says there's some hope, there's a chance for us, and it says we might be able to do a lot of things with this. And it just says so consistently and it isn't saying anything else. By this theory you would then expect and predict that it would just be machine-gunned from every quarter.
"Now, they say there is a method of getting around this. And that is to say, for every good fact you put out, put out a bad fact. That is to say, for every piece of good news, put out a piece of bad news. You know where you find yourself if you do that? You find yourself at 2.0 on the Tone Scale. Who wants to be at 2.0? I don't. Because those entheta facts are going to snarl up the theta facts. So you can go out on an overt line of attack against entheta and come off with clean hands? No, you can't. What can you do with it? You ignore it. It won't ignore you, but what do you know, if you ignore it, it'll disappear. And so it does. So it does. Where are the attackers of yesteryear? New crops come up. They go down. Too bad. It's not serious."
— L. Ron Hubbard


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In The Swim strives to give you the best summer pool experience no matter your budget or backyard space, which is why we carry a wide variety of Intex pools that are easy to set up without the commitment of giving up precious yard space. If you have any questions about Intex pools or any other pool item or pool supplies, please don't hesitate to call or email our very knowledgeable pool experts.


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Previous Lecture
Complete and continue
Create Compelling Characters
Welcome + Overview
Welcome + Introduce Yourself
Overview: 8 Key Aspects of Character Development (video/audio) (4:29)
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Goal, Motivation, and Conflict
Introduction to Goal, Motivation, Conflict section
Goal, Motivation, Conflict, + Strengths (Handout + Video) (6:34)
Your Character's Goal
Your Character's Motivations
Your Character's Conflicts
The Things They Carry
The Things They Carried (lesson and video) (2:13)
Not Your Mama's Backstory: Turning Point Story (The Wound)
The Turning Point Story (video) (4:37)
Backstory: Character Development (video/audio + writing prompts) (2:17)
Interview Your Character: List of Question (lesson + PDF)
Your Character's Inner Life
Identity and Belief Shifts
Masks and Archetypes
Get Into The Emotions
Hopes and Fears (video/audio + writing prompt) (4:29)
Emotional Palette
Emotional Core: Empathy Formula
World Building and Your Character
Investigate Your Character's World from their Perspective
Externals and What Your Character Feels About Them
Home: Describe the living situation (video + writing prompt) (1:33)
Travel: How does your character get around (video/audio + writing prompt) (1:17)
Dress: What your characters are wearing (video/audio + writing prompt) (2:27)
Appearance (video/audio + writing prompt) (1:19)
Relationships (video/audio + writing prompt) (1:47)
Character Relationship Map
Synthesize: Wrap It Up
What's Next?
One-on-One Coaching Session with Beth Barany
Survey: Your Opinion Matters to Me!
Emotional Core: Empathy Formula
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Besides granting a record number of pardons to non-violent felons convicted of drug offenses, Barack Obama didn\'t accomplish very much during his last days in office. That\'s not unusual for a lame duck president, particularly when the opposing party is in control of both houses of Congress.
Fly on the Wall Documentary Chronicles the Last Days Inside the Obama White House
Rising Star: The Making of Barack Obama
The Making of Barack Obama by David J. Garrow William Morrow Hardcover, $45.00 1472 pages ISBN: 978-0-06-264183-0 Book Review by Kam Williams "Barack Obama's speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention instantly catapulted him into the national spotlight and led to his election four years later as America's first African-American president. In this penetrating biography, David J. Garrow delivers an epic work about the life of Barack Obama, creating a rich tapestry of a life little understood, until now…
Riveting Retrospective Revisits President's Defining Moments
How many immortal speeches have been delivered by U.S. presidents and other American icons? Lincoln's "Four score and seven years ago" Gettysburg Address, FDR's "We have nothing to fear but fear itself," Eisenhower's beware of the "Military-Industrial Complex" farewell address, JFK's "Ask not what your country can do for you" inaugural address, Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" speech, and Reagan's "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall," are among the handful which have stood the test of time


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5 things to know about Iran's presidential vote
Iran holds its presidential election Friday. Here are five things you should know:
Iran's election overseers allowed eight candidates on the ballot to succeed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who cannot run again in this election because of term limits. Six candidates remained on the final ballot. Most are solid loyalists to the ruling Islamic theocracy, headed by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Among the main questions: Will pro-reform voters rally behind one of the relative moderate candidates, former nuclear negotiator Hasan Rowhani, or boycott in protest of the relentless crackdowns in recent years?
The Iranian president does not have a direct say in major policies such as the country's nuclear program or relations with the West. Those decisions are in the hands of the ruling clerics and its defenders, including the powerful Revolutionary Guard. The presidency, however, can help sway views. The president also directs the economy, an increasingly important role as international sanctions bite deeper over Tehran's disputed nuclear program.
Rowhani has surged in recent days as reformists, liberals and others helped his campaign gain momentum. Rowhani is backed by prominent reform-minded figures including former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who was denied a spot on the ballot by Iran's election overseers. Rowhani's campaign adopted purple as its signature color.
Iran's security forces are on high alert. In 2009, massive protests rocked the country after Ahmadinejad's rivals claimed the outcome was rigged in his favor. There have been no indications of widespread demonstrations this time. Authorities, however, are clamping down on everything from pro-reform gatherings to social media.
The leaders of the 2009 protests, Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mahdi Karroubi, have been under house arrest since early 2011. Both ran against Ahmadinejad and alleged vote fraud. Mousavi is a former prime minister. Karroubi served as speaker of Iran's parliament.


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Today has been an interesting day, one I will forget in years to come, yet full of emotion.
Have you ever felt as if your heart was two sizes to big? I mean the feeling of always giving of yourself wholly, completely. Do you ever think that you love too much? Can one even do that? Can we actually give to much love to others? I can't answer that question but it sure does come up lately. I mean I know the one person who loved too much, God. He was willing to sacrifice his own son because he loved so deeply. I'm not talking about him, I'm talking humans today 21st century. Have you ever heard of someone loving so much they died? I don't know if that's ever been researched. Maybe I should look into that, let's face it passion is deep.
I can honestly say that I do love with all of me, 100% of my heart, soul and mind I love. Years ago when MySpace had just come on he scene I received this message from an old high school classmate that was in one of my English classes. He said that many times I'd say hi or strike a conversation with him when nobody would even look at him. He told me I saved his life. He choose to live because that girl in English talked to him. Years later he came out and transformed from male to female. He credits my simple gesture of humanity, caring as his life saving moment. Wow, that's stayed with me. I think of that often when I'm out and about. That message was reassuring that loving others was productive.
You know, I had a few boyfriends growing up in and after high school. They never ended up well. Or the way I had hoped. That's because when I loved someone I loved with all of myself. It didn't matter if they were a country boy, a Christian loner, a scared druggie, a popular musician or a short hick I still loved them completely. The break ups were all bad, emotionally a mess. But I think about those relationships today and think, did I love them enough. That answer was yes every time.
Do you look at your friendships and wonder what more can you give? I don't. Because I know in my heart I give all of me. If I jump in its not just my toes, or wading with my pants rolled up or only in the 3ft deep area, it's all the way under. I'm soaked in that friendship. It's never a small percentage. If it feels like a friendship I jump. I'm not entirely sure this is the right way of living life with relationships cause let's face it I have been burned, and burned deeply causing deep rooted scars. But I never looked back and regretted not loving them enough because I know I was all in. I played my hand in every round. Those people have each been stashed away in my heart and can never be erased even when I wish I could because it hurt so bad.
But can one give too much? I mean can your love and never receive the same love in return. Will you ever be rewarded for loving too much. Will you ever gain that same type of love from others? I don't know. I wonder. I dream. I hope. That one day those that give of themselves wholly to the community, to their friends, their family, and their job will they ever know, feel or understand that same love, same passion and same happiness as they have given.
You know, my heart has always been a community centered heart. What can I do to help that old lady struggling to reach the box of donuts? How can I help those struggling military wives while dealng with deployments and separations? What can I do for the suffering family with a sick child? Can I give the financial needy money? How can I show those new moms love and support? Will that crying child allow me to dry his eyes and find his lost momma? Can I give that puppy a home? The list goes on. My brain is always looking for someone else to help out. It doesn't stop. In the end do all those precious beings feel love because I'm trying to express it in my own Texas way.
Can I use all the struggles I've faced in my life to change someone else's? This is a big one. One I used to go back to school and get my associates. I want to share with others those trials so that they may know they are not alone. So that they may look at me and say yes I too can get through this mess.
But with all this giving of love I wonder when it's too much. Will or have I reached the end of those deep loving days and if I do or have will someone notice and say hey this girl needs me and my love? I don't know. I fear the answer to that. Does it make me stop? Nope. Do I question my love I give, yes absolutely. But I can't love expecting others to reciprocate, I'll be devastated forever. But there must be a limit and I'm not exactly sure where the line is? I don't want to run out of love. I don't want to resent giving it away and know that the receiver is taking and will never acknowledge. You get where I'm going with all this.
God is good, he's very good but he also allows bad things to happen to good, very good people. Those people suffer oh do they suffer. Will that reward in heaven be good enough to erase all the pain they suffered on earth? I'm one to hope the answer is yes. I know god is love. So by showing love do I show gods love? I'm not sure of that one either.
My prayer tonight is that love will multiply amongst us and flow freely from and through us so that we all are fulfilled with joy and happiness. I want to think god is greater than all the tragedy that the love he has touches those that need it and those that don't.
Thank you Lord Jesus for your sacrifice and love and giving me the chance to love others as you have loved us.


text:
The inmates from the Philippines has a new dance choreo...cool
The song they use "They don't care about us" is actually my 2nd mj favorite song...and that song really fits the prison vibe thing...they even have a prison version of the video release back then.
Check out the shoes...theyre all wearing fresh classic converses...
and that shirt is cool too.
It gives me goosebumps just to see them dance so synchronize.
They make History with this..hehe
I dont usually say stuff like this but if MJ was alive, he'll be proud of this...they've been dancing to Mj's music even before he died.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Philippine Danciing Inmates - Michael Jackson's "This is it"
The inmates from the Philippines has a new dance choreo...cool
Posted by Full-Time at 12:23 AM 0 comments Links to this post
Labels: blogging, Break dance, Choreography, Dancing inmates, Michael Jackson, Philippines, Presentation, Synchronize, This is it


text:
Putting the words side by side:
When I taught my students about plagiarism, an important element was a discussion on paraphrasing. Most students are not aware exactly what paraphrasing is, and some are satisfied to replace a word here or there in a sentence, thinking they are making it their own. Even when paraphrasing, a citation MUST be written, because the original idea is not yours.
EasyBib has some excellent videos which talk about plagiarism and paraphrasing. I always show my students these two videos. (The female voice on the second one is a bit odd, but the information is great.) This recent event is the perfect opportunity to show students the right way to do research.


text:
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http://www.sparkyswidgets.com/product/leophi/is the microcontrollers the same?
It's a pity the back is covered with glue.
Samba, if you still have your LCD, could you test it for this project ?
By the way, one thing that came to mind after seeing the meter without chip is that you may... still be able to read the meter. The PH-sensor itself gives a very small voltage, the opamp translates it to a higher voltage after which it is read by an ADC in the microcontroller and printed on lcd. What we've tried so far is looking at the output of a microcontroller, but you can try to read its input as well. Arduino has an adc as well. If you can find the right pin, it may be possible to analogread it with your arduino.